Appeal from a judgment of the County Court of Broome County (Mathews, J.), rendered January 15, 1999, (1) convicting defendant upon his plea of guilty of the crimes of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fifth degree and resisting arrest, and (2) upon a verdict convicting defendant of the crime of robbery in the second degree.
On January 30, 1998, defendant was at the residence of Cindy Curry in the Village of Endicott, Broome County, when members of the Endicott Police Department executed a search warrant which authorized them to search Curry’s residence and the person of anyone found there. During the course of a strip-search of defendant, a police officer observed a foreign object protruding from defendant’s rectum, and when the police attempted to retrieve it defendant resisted. After subduing defendant, the police recovered a plastic bag containing 11 grams of crack cocaine from the floor directly underneath defendant. Defendant was arrested and subsequently indicted for criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fifth degree and resisting arrest (hereinafter indictment No. 1). Defendant eventually pleaded guilty to all three charges in indictment No. 1, County Court refusing to commit to a sentence due to a pending robbery indictment.
The unrelated indictment charging defendant and others with robbery in the second degree (hereinafter indictment No. 2) resulted from his actions in the City of Binghamton, Broome County, on June 9, 1998 wherein it was alleged that defendant, his brother and Derek Carter, acting in concert, forcibly stole property consisting of United States currency from Donald Douglas. Defendant proceeded to trial on this indictment and was convicted.
At a single sentencing hearing, defendant was sentenced as a second felony offender to concurrent indeterminate prison sentences, the largest of which was 4V2 to 9 years, on indictment No. 1, and a consecutive, determinate prison sentence of 5 years for his conviction on indictment No. 2. Defendant now appeals.
Specifically, we find the first informant’s information, corroborated by McCulskey, met the two-prong Aguilar-Spinelli test
Defendant’s argument that he was unreasonably subjected to a strip search is likewise without merit. The search of defendant’s person was authorized by the warrant at issue. Although defendant now asserts otherwise, the record does not reflect that he was subjected to a body-cavity search by the police, nor did he make such claim in his suppression motion. While the foreign object was observed protruding from his
With respect to indictment No. 2, defendant claims that the disclosure of the Grand Jury testimony of witness Katherine Armstrong to Endicott police officers was unlawful because it violated the statutory requirement of secrecy for Grand Jury proceedings (see, CPL 190.25 [4] [a]; People v Di Falco,
The limited proof in the record which we may properly consider on this issue reveals no prosecutorial wrongdoing or fraudulent conduct. In the first instance, the record reveals that the Grand Jury itself was responsible for recalling Armstrong to testify, not the prosecutor. Secondly, at defendant’s trial Armstrong testified, under cross-examination by defense counsel, that the Endicott police did not have knowledge of her Grand Jury testimony prior to talking to her but that she told them what she had said. To the extent that we may even consider Armstrong’s undated, unsworn “affidavit” contained in the record as an exhibit to a defense motion to this Court, nothing therein leads us to a different conclusion. Defendant has failed to show that any actions of the prosecutor or his
In light of Armstrong’s return to the Grand Jury, defendant also argues that the prosecutor should have instructed the Grand Jury that legally sufficient evidence (CPL 190.65 [1]) requires the evidence be “competent” and that coerced testimony is not competent and admissible evidence. We find this argument without merit. Further, as we previously noted, Armstrong’s additional Grand Jury testimony was not “coerced” by the prosecutor but requested by the Grand Jury itself.
Defendant next argues that his conviction for robbery in the second degree was against the weight of the evidence and based on legally insufficient evidence because the testimony of Armstrong, who was present with him and the others at Douglas’ residence during the robbery, was so inconsistent and unworthy of belief that it was unreliable as a matter of law. We find these claims to be without merit.
Douglas, the robbery victim, testified that defendant, defendant’s brother, Armstrong and Carter came to his apartment so one of them could get a tattoo, but that shortly after they arrived, Carter grabbed him from behind and began choking him. Immediately before he passed out, Douglas saw defendant and defendant’s brother approach him and felt, but did not see, someone going through his pockets. Defendant and the others then left and Douglas discovered that $1,086 in cash that he had in his pocket was gone. Upon his arrest the next day, defendant was found with over $900 in cash and admitted to the police that he was in Douglas’ apartment with the others when Douglas was attacked and robbed.
At trial, Armstrong testified on direct examination that she was present with defendant and saw Douglas being choked from behind and defendant going through Douglas’ pockets. Defendant’s claim that it was Carter who had choked and robbed Douglas, contained in his written statement received in evidence, was obviously rejected by the jury which instead accepted Armstrong’s testimony. Such factual determinations are properly the province of the jury and will not be disturbed (see, e.g., People v Smith,
Lastly, we find no merit to defendant’s claim that he was denied due process (see, People v Isaacson,
We have reviewed defendant’s remaining arguments and find them unavailing.
Crew III, J. P., Peters, Mugglin and Rose, JJ., concur. Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.
Notes
. This test is still applicable in New York (see, People v Griminger,
. Although the record does not contain any motion papers addressed to the integrity of the Grand Jury proceedings, the People do not argue that defendant failed to preserve the issue by not raising it before County Court (see, People v Boyer,
